A spectacular start to a Sunday morning...!

I was woken this morning at the crack of dawn by a loud, rumbling sound. At first I thought it was fireworks, but 4am seemed a little early for that. My next thought was thunder, but it wasn't raining and there were no flashes of lightening. Then it struck me what the sound was. And yeah sure enough when I went out on to my balcony, there in the darkness was a red strip of glowing lava! Volcano Fuego was erupting! Unfortunately due to pitch blackness and the distance I wasn't able to get a good photo, but take my word for it, it was spectacular...! It's moments like these that I remember why I wanted to be a volcanologist and its moments like this that make me a little sad that it didn't work out...

Anyway, the reason why I was up so early this morning (my alarm was due to go off at 4.30am anyway) is because I was going to Lake Atitlan. It's about a 2 hour drive from Antigua and is an ancient volcano who's crater collapsed during a massive eruption 84,000 uears ago, leaving behind the present day Lake Atitlan. It's rather large (12 x 5km) and is meant to be quite spectacular... I have to say, after this mornings events I feel pretty underwhelmed here... Sure it's pretty. The water is clear (clear enough to see the bits and pieces of rubbish floating around) and the shorelines are formed by massive mountains and 4 volcanoes rising out of the water, dotted with small villages. But that's it. Our boat stopped at 3 villages and it was the same story every time. Hoards of Tuck Tucks waiting at the jetty to offer a ride, followed by various guides insistently offering to show I'm not sure what (and very quickly dropping his price from Q100 to Q35) and then finally the streets are lined with souvenir shops wanting to sell you anything from key rings to tablecloths. None of which fit in my backpack anyway! Maybe I'm missing something, maybe I should have taken the guide up on his offer...

A bit of Antiguan history...

Antigua is home to a number of ruins, dotted around the city. Most of which were churches, with others being schools, convents or even the cathedral. The ruins are mostly the result of an earthquake in 1773, that had an estimated magnitude of 7.5. It basically destroyed the whole city, which at that time was the capital of Guatemala. For around 20 years after the earthquake, Antigua was all but abandoned. This was not the first devastating earthquake in Antigua so in 1776 the capital moved to the present day Guatemala City. Eventually Antigua was rebuilt, but the numerous ruins were left as a reminder or what happened. The city is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, it's possible to go into most of the ruins and walk around. I did such this afternoon, in the San Jeronimo ruins, which used to be a school. It was beautiful and so peaceful. It was around lunch time and a lot of locals were laid in the gardens eating their lunch in the sun. The gardens are full of beautiful, colourful flowers and volcano Agua forms the backdrop. I spent about an hour or so wandering around and taking photos... The results of which can be found on the photo page.

Casa número uno - done!

Week 1 of building, done! I've successfully completed one house and started on the second today. I knew this project would be hard work and intensive but I never quite imagined how intensive. Everything is done by hand here. Breeze blocks are chipped into the required shape (I assume because it's more expensive to buy the ones already in the shape you need), every piece of iron rod (regardless of thickness!) is hand bent with a variety of tools depending on the desired form and cement is mixed, by hand, in the soil. The only power tools I have seen was a circular saw used to cut the breeze blocks in half and a drill used to secured the tin sheet roof. That's all. It's hard work! No wonder the construction workers are so strong! Well every one is here. This morning the 4 year old son was playing with the wheel barrow! A full-size wheel barrow! He was able to lift it, push it forward and manoeuvre it better than I could! Ask a kid back home to do that and they wouldn't even get it off the ground! That brings me to another observation... Back home a building site would be no place for a kid, they probably wouldn't even let me in! But here the kids run around the site, playing with the tools! Yesterday the 4 year old and his slightly older friend (relative?) were playing with axes. The ones I used to chip breeze blocks. They were playing. They cut the left over breeze blocks into smaller pieces and went off to a corner to build their own mini house! Back home if I kid got hold of a pair of scissors, the parents would have a heart attack, here they didn't even bat an eyelid. I guess that's because the kids here have no toys, nothing else to play with, so as long as they are happy... Right?

This week also marked the REAL start of the rainy season. It rains each afternoon and most nights there is a thunderstorm. At the moment, there is a torrential downpour with the occasional rumble of thunder... I'm waiting for my ride back to Antigua, about an hour and 15 minutes from here. The guy has a pick up, which was fine this morning when it was just me, but around here you are never quite sure how many people they will try and cram in! And with rain like this, I don't wanna be in the back...

Building day 1: today I laid a foundation...

Today I started my volunteer project. The reason I came to Guatemala. I am building a one room house for a family in Santa Cruz Balanya. The family consists of mum, dad, son and baby, together with a female relative (could be a sister, could be a cousin) and her baby. They are currently living in a house made of maize stalks, wood and lots of recycled materials such as bin bags. Inside there is no floor. Just mud. Which seemed fine today when it hadn't been raining, but I can't even begin to imagine what it turns into when there is a torrential downpour! They have 2 beds, neither of which have mattresses, just wooden planks and a makeshift swing bassinet for the baby. The kitchen is a small shed out back and the toilet is literally just a toilet outside, with a curtain around it.

Today we laid the foundations for the new house. We started by cutting steel rods to size. And I say we, but really it was the men folk! I tried one and couldn't cut it at first. But I persevered, much to the amusement of the builders and when I finally managed to cut through it, everyone cheered! Including the little boy. I was then asked to do the easier task of bending thinner steel rods into about the same shape as a staple. Using only a log with 4 nails in it and a tool that I have no idea how to explain what it is! These staples were then used to connect three of the thicker steel rods together to create the basis for the foundation. Check out the photo page to see this!

Next job was mixing cement! Now in England or Holland this would be done in a cement mixer, but here they don't have those so it's all done by hand! A huge heap of sand, 3.5 bags of cement, 4 wheelbarrows of rocks and 6 buckets of water (to start with)! First the sand and the cement needs to be mixed. This is done by creating 2 small volcanoes from the large heaps of sand. Then those are recombined to once again make one large volcano. It's then flattened and the rocks are added. Making sure the edges are a bit higher, kind of like a pizza crust, so that when the water is added it doesn't run out. That's the Guatemalan recipe for cement! Then the hard work began. And this, coincidentally, was the point where I stood back and watched the men do the hard work! Mixing the cement once the water had been added seemed like very heavy going. Additional water was added where needed and then as parts of the mixture was deemed ready, it was shovelled into a bucket which I then carried to the head builder who poured it into the trench. Next and finally task for today was chipping away at breeze blocks. With a small, blunt axe and no safety glasses! We had to chip away the end of the blocks and create a rectangular shaped hole in the front of the blocks. This was, I was told, for the corners of the house so that the blocks could be easily slid over the steel rods. Chipping away the end of the blocks was easy peasy. Because that's the thinnest part of the block. Creating the hole in the front of the block was hard! It was the thickest part of the block and all we had was this small, blunt axe. It took the builder 2 minutes to demonstrate what we should be doing. It then took me the best part of 15 minutes to do one block!

After a couple of blocks our ride back to Antigua came. When I left, the builders had laid a couple of breeze blocks in the corners. Unfortunately in my rush to gather my belongs I completely forgot to take an end of day photo...!

Tomorrow I will not be building, I will be making up for the Spanish lesson I missed on Friday. I'm guessing by the time I go back on Wednesday they will have half of the walls up already!

Semuc Champey: paradise in the jungle

This weekend I ventured out on my first trip since arriving in Guatemala. Destination: Semuc Champey. It is a natural monument consisting of a 300m limestone bridge, under which the Cahabón River flows and on top of which seven stepped turquoise pools can be found. This is what I was going for! The whole site is in the jungle, somewhere in the middle of nowhere and as I found out, quite difficult to get to.

So off I went on Friday morning, skipping my last Spanish lesson to get the 8am minibus to Lanquin. The closest form of civilisation. Once again in an overfill minibus. Once we got past the chaos that is Guatemala City the views became more rural and we headed up into the hills. During the lunch stop I decided to Google the hostel to get an idea of what I could expect. To my horror I found out that not only did the hostel not have wifi (not really a problem after 2.5 weeks in Cuba, but still), it didn't have hot water and only had electricity between 6-10pm! Reading through reviews it was also mentioned taut some of the rooms were open and therefore had lots of bugs, creepy crawlers and mosquitoes! I was ready to turn back and head for my nice comfy house in Antigua, but I'd come that far... So I continued with a heavy heart. The journey should have taken 8 hours. It took 10. And then we were only at Lanquin. The hostel I was staying in was another 45 minutes, standing up in the back of a caged pick up truck, driving on a dirt track with lots of potholes, plenty of stones and lots of ups and downs. A great workout! In the pickup I met a Dutch guy, an American girl, an Italian girl and 2 Italian guys. Who ends up being my roommates for the weekend (with the exception of the Italian guys). By the time we made it to the hostel it was pitch black! I had no idea where we were... All I could make out was the dark outlines of trees and maybe the occasional human. After a pretty restless night being kept awake by the loud cricket chirping, I woke and opened the pieces of material acting as curtains to see the view. And what a view it was! The hostel was literally on the river! The restaurant terrace was even overhanging the river. It was amazing! We had a few hours before the tour started so the four of us enjoyed a peaceful breakfast, overlooking the river. After breakfast we were given some more information about the days activities. Much to my disappointment, we had to hike for 1 hour, over a mountain to get to the turquoise pools. After last weekend I swore I would never hike again, but here I was one week later going on another hike! And it was difficult. Again, I almost thought I wouldn't make it. But thanks to the American for making me laugh historically all the way and the Dutchy for saying we were almost there alot (most of which was a lie!) and offering to carry my backpack, I made it to the top. And to the viewpoint. And wow! It was breathtaking! The water was clear, crystal turquoise, flowering between the different pools and all set in the middle of nothingness! I couldn't wait to get down there and dive in! The only thing separating me from the crystal waters? A 20ish minute decent and then we were locking up our belongings and jumping in. The water was refreshingly cool and so clear! So welcome after the hike. This was definitely the highlight of the weekend. We swam and floated lazily around all seven pools, before returning for lunch. Other activities included going into a cave system. With only a candle to light the way. This got interesting in the parts where we had to swim. Without letting the candle go out or get wet. I went barefoot (which in hindsight was a mistake) and I'm sure I broke 4 toes, have numerous bruises and one pretty painful cut on my foot, thanks to not being able to see the submerged (sharp!) rocks. The afternoon ended anticlimactically with tubing down the river. Which was basically just sitting in an inflatable ring for 30 minutes, trying to avoid the odd rock. A bit like the lazy river at Wet 'n Wild. Saturday night was spent playing cards with the (ever expanding) group and drinking cocktails in the happy hour.

Sunday was travelling back. This time the journey only took 7 hours because our driver was a loonatic, tailgater that either had a hot date in Antigua or he was just tired of living...

And what better way to end a weekend like this? Playing darts at the local British pub, whilst drinking their home-brewed cider with your new found friends... Perfect!

Climbing an active volcano, it's a good idea... Right?

This morning was the volcano hike. At 5:45am I stood outside my house waiting to be picked up and at 6am sharp a small white minibus pulled up and the driver announced "Volcan Pacaya". We stopped to pick up another 5 people and the minibus was now at full capacity. Or maybe above it. It seem cramped. We drove for what seemed like an eternity (about an hour and a half), with the roads become more windey, more steep and more dirt road like. And then we arrived. Or did we? It didn't look much like a volcano. If it weren't for all the signs saying welcome to volcano Pacaya it could just have been the side of any tree covered hill. And there were horses everywhere! Which was of annoyance to me as I am allergic to them. We paid our park entrance fee and after a short introduction we were off! Followed closely by the horses. Or taxis for the lazy. I'm not really a hiker, but after conquering last weeks hike in Edinburgh I thought this would be a piece of cake. Only Edinburgh was a nice smooth walking surface or grass and the occasional rock (and there was promise of alcohol at the top to encourage me!). This was an active volcano however, consisting either of black volcanic sand that slipped away under each step, brutally sharp volcanic rocks where one wrong step would result in a broken ankle or a combination of both where a fall would certainly mean a broken tailbone. And ankle. I realised early it wasn't going to be so easy. But stubborn as I am, I puffed my way up the volcano. Followed by the horses. These horse guys are smart. Calculate the weakest link and follow them until they give in and pay for the horse. And I had been pinpointed as the weakling and they were now constantly badgering me, enticing me with such words as "with a horse it's much easier" or "walking is not good for your heart" (!). I thought playing the allergy card would get rid of them but they were persistent. And it paid off. Around a third of the way into the hike, I caved! I knew it would only get steeper and I was slowing the group down. And they were right, the remaining two thirds were much easier for me on a horse. Not so much for the poor, little horse that had to carry me up the volcano...

When we arrived at the top the view was spectacular. Well worth the hardship of the first third. It wasn't the best of weather but still, the volcano was impressive! The crater with a chunk missing and the layers of ash from the explosive 2010 eruption and the numerous blackened lava flows from the most recent eruption 2 years ago. I was told that the lava from that eruption had only just hardened 10 days ago. I will admit I was slightly disappointed to hear that there would be no red hot lava pouring down the slopes, but hey you can't have everything! At this point I said goodbye to my trusty, four legged friend, as they only did the ascent. I was on my own for the descent.

Descending the volcano was tricky. The first section was walking over lava, not the easiest of surfaces to walk on. Every now and then I'd walk over a very hollow sounding section, wondering whether it would give way beneath my feet. The majority of the descent was sand, loose, fine, black sand. And it was slippy! A few of the group found this out the hard way!

Back at the base I sat and thought about the morning. I'm glad I did it, I'm glad I held out for so long before giving up and choosing the easy option. But would I do it again?? Hell yeah! Only next time I'll be taking a helicopter...!

Photos in the photo section!

The Chicken Bus journey

Today I experienced something new. Something typical to central America. A "trambilla". Or chicken bus.

Let me go back a bit and paint the scene. My host mum also works at the school where I have my Spanish lessons. It has been taking me 30 minutes to walk to and from school everyday. My class starts at 8am, so most mornings I basically have to run/walk fast (for Guatemalan standards) to make it there on time. It only takes my host mum 20 minutes to get there, so today when we were both finishing at the same time she offered to show me the quickest way home. She cheats! She takes the trambilla!

Chicken busses are old, yellow American school buses that they pimp out, painting the outside all kinds of colours and inside, fitting a sound system that wouldn't be out of place in a club. It was an experience. First of all, there was no bus stop, we just waited on a street corner until one showed up. How you are meant to know where they stop is still a mystery to me! Maybe to discourage tourists from using them? Knowing when to get off is also a skill! You have to know where to get off and there are no stop buttons to signal that you want to get off, you just have to walk to the front of the bus without falling over (they drive like maniacs and the streets are cobbled!). I say the bus stops, but in reality it just slows to a crawl in rate and you have to jump. While jumping you are expected to pay the 2 Quetzals (€0.22) to the young guy hanging out of the door. The bus then speeds up again and in some cases the money guy has to run and jump to get back on the bus. As I said, an experience.

Anyway, now I know how my host mum gets to and from school so quickly, however I'm not sure I will be repeating it on my own tomorrow...

Day 2: The Spanish lessons begin!

Today was my first Spanish lesson. Four hours long. I'm exhausted! Having a private lesson will be good for me in the long run, but it's very intensive! No hiding behind more vocal students anymore!

The Spanish school is a short walk from Central Park and the lessons are given outside in the garden (see photo).

My teacher is called Rita. A very sweet (and patient) lady. She has three children, the oldest of which has just started university to be a lawyer!

After my lesson I retreated to my "study spot" for a celebratory (it's an achievement to get through a four hours of lesson without my head exploding!) cortado and a slice of one of their impressive looking cakes.

This afternoons adventure was a trip to the supermarket and then the daily outdoor market. To practice what I had learnt this morning! Not sure how useful things like vivo en La Haya or hoy es dos de mayo were ever going to be there though! Anyway the supermarket was huge and unorganised chaos (think Aldi but a thousand times more messy) with things stacked up about 10m high! The market was packed with people and I think I saw about 1% of it before deciding to head home. To do my homework. Like a good student. Tomorrow is lesson number 2. This time with an 8am start. Good job Cafe Condesa has an Express or takeaway section!